Wednesday, May 04, 2011

prep

It was a week ago today that tornado after tornado after tornado devastated many towns here in the southeast.

Over three hundred lives lost; many more changed forever.

The weatherman started warning us of severe weather on Wednesday a few days earlier. We are weather watchers - especially since Pat is a fisherman. When he was a fishing guide, it was critical that he know what to 'expect' weather-wise.

Wednesday morning I ran a few errands and picked up a movie from redbox. Even if we lost power, I figured we could watch the DVD in the dark on my laptop. Pat had been at Malwart the previous day and replenished our supply of little propane bottles so we could either grill or cook on our camp stove or grill. I think he also topped off the gas tank in the car.

According to the noon news that day, storms had already begun to pummel Alabama. I charged the laptop and my cell phone. The crawl across the bottom of the screen mentioned that school would be closing at one. I texted my piano student's moms to see if they would like to have lessons earlier (so glad I did - the girls would have been here at the height of the first storm!).

I got our lanterns out, decided what to have for supper, we moved our back porch furniture and grill (just a small coleman camp grill) up close to the house.

I set a few chairs and some blankets and the battery powered radio in the laundry room. We were set.

If we still lived up north and were on a well, I would have filled buckets, pots and pans and pitchers full of water so we would have water for flushing, washing, cooking and drinking. Here, though we live out in the country, we are close enough to have city water.

We waited and the storm arrived as predicted. A few hours after the beginning the power flickered, then went out.

We listened to the radio, looked out the window and when the weather man said there were tornado warnings in our county (7 times), we sat in the laundry room for a spell.

We watched our movie (in and out of the laundry room. And made the best of things.

Everytime we have a storm, I learn a few things - things I should do differently or additionally.

After the storms were over, but while the power was still out, I went back to Malwart and bought and inverter. Now I could charge my cell phone and my laptop when necessary. I could even run the tv (it will power a 27" or less tv) and I could probably vacuum or iron if I wanted to (I didn't lol).

Now that we had the inverter and a bag of ice, we could have gone a few more days without power with no great inconvenience. But the power came back on shortly after these purchases.

Many towns in Alabama were without power and phone rendering credit and debit cards useless. It is always good to have cash (and change) on hand during situations like these. I could not make calls during the aftermath, but texts were sent and received without trouble.

Do you have any tips for emergency preparations? Do share!

The best preparation of all? Faith and trust in GOD. No matter what happens - we are in His hands.

5 comments:

momawake, an inverter is a device that enables you to plug one end into the cigarette lighter on your car and plug your laptop or other electrical device into it. It converts the DC power of the car battery into AC power for your device.

Actually I have no clue as to what it does, but it works! I found mine in the electronics dept. at Malwart. Perhaps automotive stores would carry it as well.

Well, we are buying an inverter tm for sure. Our county was spared, but neighboring county had 6 deaths and so so so many homes destroyed. We went to the basement once ...and since our basement looks likes hoarders , I kept thinking...if one hits here, all this "stuff" in basement will hit us and kill us. Seriously, I did take my old, old, old Bible with me in the basement and some old photos that have not been scanned yet. AND, we are seriously going to try to somehow make our basement safer as in...I think he's going to try to build a closet like room under the stairwell or something after what we've seen. Only by the Grace of God....